How to Survive Thanksgiving Dinner With Your Lipstick Intact

Thanksgiving is in less than 48 hours, which means that you’ll most likely be stuffing your face with abandon anywhere between the hours of six and nine p.m. tomorrow. On the one night of the year when it’s perfectly acceptable to unbutton your trousers after dinner (no? just us?), it’s easy to forget about trivial details, like the fact that you happen to be wearing your favourite lipstick and it’s smearing all over your wine glass. Oops. To save you from emerging from the Thanksgiving feast resembling, well, anything other than your polished self, we’re sharing four lipstick-saving tips. Keep scrolling to find out how to keep your lipstick perfect throughout dinner!

When it comes to staying power, nothing beats the high-pigment punch of a lip liner. Always, always use one to line your lips, then fill them in before applying your lipstick. The lip liner will stay behind as your lipstick fades throughout the course of the meal, plus it gives your lipstick something to adhere to.

Worst-case scenario? Your lipstick ends up all over your face after your second (or third) serving. Best-case scenario? You lipstick stays on your lips, where it’s supposed to. To keep the best-case scenario the only scenario of the night, we suggest one powerful tool: invisible lip liner. Lining your lips with it will keep everything inside the lines, leaving you with more time to check out the extensive pie selection for dessert. Click here to read more about this magical product.

A light dusting of translucent powder, Laura Mercier’s Translucent Setting Powder ($37), will seal your lip color in and leave a slightly matte finish. Hold a tissue up to your lips, and gently brush over it with the loose powder—then say hello to your next round of stuffing. (Editor tip: Make sure to blot, then re-apply your lipstick at least once before applying loose powder for extra staying power.)

Lipstick stains on your wine glass might not sound like the biggest deal, but it also means your lipstick is traveling—smearing, most likely—off your lips onto other surfaces. To prevent this from happening, employ this tried-and-true trick: Just lick your glass. Doing so provides a protective coating so your lipstick won’t leave the slightest mark. We recommend doing this subtly, as not to be awkwardly misinterpreted by Uncle Eddy sitting across the table.

Any tips we missed? How do you keep your lipstick put during a meal? Tell us below!